West Orange man charged with attempted murder after officer-involved shooting

A West Orange-area man is facing multiple charges after allegedly firing at deputies responding to a domestic disturbance Wednesday, Feb. 13, at The Citra at Windermere apartment complex.

Laforest Duron Gray Jr., 23, has been charged with burglary with assault, domestic battery, resisting arrest with violence and with a weapon and four counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm on a law enforcement officer, according to his arrest report.

Deputies responded to complex, located at 11353 Citra Circle, just before 8 p.m. Feb. 13 in response to a fight between a male and a female. A 911 caller said the male, Gray, was dragging a female, identified as Gray’s wife, by her hair, according to the report.

The witness, Carlos Bastos, told deputies he was driving through the apartment complex when he saw Gray’s wife — who appeared to be in distress — walking from a garage toward the apartment buildings. He asked her if she needed help, but she refused.

Bastos then saw Gray — who appeared to be acting strangely — walking out of the garage. As Bastos drove away, he noticed the wife running toward his car. Bastos asked the wife again if she needed help, and she jumped into his car. Gray then ran to the vehicle and tried to open the door, but the wife held it shut. Bastos got out of the vehicle and told Gray to leave, but Gray did not. Gray then allegedly opened the car door, dragged his wife out by her hair and punched her, according the arrest report.

Responding deputies arrived at the scene to find Gray and his wife inside of their garage. Deputies asked the two to come out of the garage, but they refused. The wife eventually came out of the garage, but Gray still refused to cooperate and brandished a gun at the deputies. He then fired his gun and three deputies returned fire, according to the report.

“The suspect or the woman did not comply at first,” Sheriff John Mina said during a press conference. “Eventually, the woman did come out. The suspect was armed with a gun, and we believe three deputies fired at the suspect. At this time, it is believed the suspect was not hit. However, he did resist arrest and was bitten by a K-9.”

Mina said Gray, his wife and the deputies involved in the incident were uninjured from the shooting. Gray was taken to a hospital and treated for a dog bite before being taken to jail. He recorded the incident on Instagram Live.

“We learned that the shooting was captured on Instagram by the suspect himself, and we’re in the process of reviewing that right now,” Mina said. “All three deputies are assigned body-worn cameras, and we have not reviewed their footage as of yet.”

The video appears to show Gray shouting expletives at police before shots were fired. About four minutes into the video, Gray looks at the camera and says, “Straight up, you fixin’ (sic) to see this (expletive) live. I’ll take one for the team bro.” Gray then turned toward deputies and continuously told his wife to “come here” as deputies tried to get her out of the garage. As soon as deputies pulled the wife away, shots were fired. Gray took cover behind his vehicle in the garage and continued to scream for his wife and yell profanities at deputies, according to the report.

Mina said the suspect’s gun, a revolver, was recovered at the scene.

According to the arrest report, the revolver had three spent cartridge casings and two live cartridges in it when it was recovered. One spent casing was aligned with the barrel, indicating it had just been fired.